I can’t drive, I’m on the phone

Stand on any street corner and you’ll see all the evidence you need that the law against using a mobile ‘phone whilst driving has been rather less effective than the smoking ban.

Position yourself by any busy street corner and you’ll soon gather all the evidence you need that the law against driving with a mobile phone clamped to the side of one’s head has been rather less effective than that other recent attempt to protect public health: the smoking ban.

Whatever the reasons for this, most drivers – guilty or not of a habit arguably far more dangerous than smoking in a pub – do know that hand-held phones pose a risk. What they don’t realise though is that the high level of concentration required to conduct any type of telephone conversation means that so-called “hands-free kits” aren’t much safer.

Indeed, a mounting body of evidence suggests that hands free systems, and the ludicrous headsets that scream out their users’ misguided sense of self-importance, could be as big a threat to road-safety as drink driving.

According to research conducted at the University of Sydney’s Injury Prevention and Trauma Care Division, drivers using mobile phone whilst driving are four times more like to crash. The group’s report makes no distinction between hand-held or hands-free mobile phones. Similar research conducted here in the UK by scientists at Transport Research Laboratory has found that drivers talking on both hand-held and hands-free mobile phones have on average 30 per cent slower reaction times than those who have been drinking, and 50 per cent slower times than sober drivers. Similar results were found during tests at the University of Utah in the US, comparing the use of hands-free phones and drinking at the UK limit.

Emotive stuff, and made even more worrying by the fact that, with a few exceptions, the relentless march of in-car technology is providing drivers with more and not fewer distractions from the serious business of not crashing their cars.

It can easily be argued that today’s increasingly advanced in-car entertainment systems, highly addictive satnav devices and even climate control systems are all helping to put the driver in a homogenised bubble, dangerously removed from the realities of the road. The automotive industry must find a way of steering a safe passage through this technology minefield. It’s either that, or a return to the days when climate control meant a flimsy plastic window handle and the only place you could find a car phone was inside the batmobile.

Jon Excell

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Dave mallin - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone20th September 2007 at 2:55 pm

I agree that there has been total apathy towards this law, but is it any worse than carrying on an animated conversation with somebody in the car? Just a thought, but could we get to a situation with all these laws that you cannot talk in your car? It might just shut a few back seat drivers up though!

E.Anstey - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone20th September 2007 at 3:11 pm

Driving in S Africa makes any form of distraction dangerous. However, taking a corner with your phone under your chin – or slowing down because you can’t multitask, talk and drive – is as bad as drinking and driving. I think!!

David Cutter - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone20th September 2007 at 3:18 pm

I agree about distractions in the car. Should we ban passengers from talking to the driver as they do in Public Service Vehicles and private hire buses? Then also children should be banned for their distractions to the driver: put them in a sound-proof booth. How about the spouse, nagging about this or that? Would this also apply to police officers, I wonder?

Tony Flint - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone20th September 2007 at 3:24 pm

As someone who walks to and from work I agree that there are many idiots out there that continue to drive with mobile firmly clamped to side of head, and the brain dead who even drive through red lights doing same. Why not build vehicles which automatically wind down all the windows when a mobile is detected in use? At least the discomfort might make them slow up a bit.

Kevin Nicholas - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone20th September 2007 at 3:27 pm

Using a mobile phone is indeed a distraction, as is tuning in the radio or selecting the next CD track.
However, holding an animated conversation is not such a hazard as both parties are actually in the vehicle and the passenger is just as likely to stop talking when they notice a hazard as the driver. I have noticed that when in a situation when there is perceived danger the vehicle usually becomes quiet if it contains adults. Children on the other hand are not so aware and do not shut up when the driver is trying to concentrate which is why they can be annoying to travel with when such a higher level of concentration is required such as driving at night, in heavy traffic, and in poor weather conditions.

Kevin Done - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone20th September 2007 at 3:37 pm

I completely agree that the law on holding mobiles to the ear is being flouted and this dangerous practice needs to stamped on – hard! However, I cannot agree that the use of hands free kits is more dangerous than drinking & driving, or even pose any danger at all
If that is the case then every driver should be in a sound proof box isolated from the wife and children as their questions and comments can require just as much or even more concentration than a mobile. As for having your boss in the car, that is a definite ‘no no’.

What is more dangerous by far is smoking whilst driving, from getting a cigarette out of the packet (‘look no hands’) smoke gets in your eyes and my favourite, the hot end in your lap.

Chris Cook - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone20th September 2007 at 3:43 pm

Let’s remember the benefits, such as being able to slow down – even though late – because you’ve phoned in to explain. Or having senses, dulled by motorway driving, sharpened up by a lively phone call.
The real menace on the road is tiredness – due in part to those nice closed cabins and stressful days. Surely we must expect the use of available technology to alert drivers to a rapidly approaching backs of slowing vehicles (or even apply the brakes).
How much time is lost, injuries received and money wasted from simple rear end shunts on motorways? Could this be a thing of the past within a decade if automotive sector had the will?

The solution is to ban cars immediately, which will allow mobile phone users to talk safely whenever they want on public transport without becoming a danger to other road users and pedestrians. It will also stop nagging wives, children and back seat drivers talking (as mentioned by other contributors). This will make safer roads and help industry reduce the cost of moving goods by eliminating UK traffic jams. It will also help the UK government reduce the cost of imports into the UK by eliminating the import of expensive foreign built cars. It will also stop pollution and improve the UK trade balance as I am sure it will not be in the black. I COULD GO ON AND ON WITH ADDITIONAL BENEFITS. Who needs cars and politicians?!

P. Nichol - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone20th September 2007 at 3:53 pm

When the driver in front slowed down to 60mph in front of me I wondered why. As I passed him I saw that he was on the phone and making notes in a book balanced on the steering wheel.
What law?
Perhaps Satnav is better than looking at the atlas balanced on the passenger seat?
Seriously though, staying alive whilst driving is all about concentration.

Malcolm Pyrke - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone20th September 2007 at 4:06 pm

One of the things that makes me chuckle is that hearing aids are being made smaller and smaller to hide them away. But people are quite happy to walk around with a big lump of plastic stuck in their ear, just because its “Blue tooth”.
Or have they been secretly assimilated , and have turned Borg.

Would smoking in the car i.e. using only one hand to drive with, then perhaps dropping the said cigarette in your lap or on the floor, be just as dangerous? Perhaps technology should be embraced and safer means employed, we do listen to the radio, carry passengers and children (oops another distraction) in our cars after all.

Andrew Porter - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone20th September 2007 at 5:50 pm

I am one of those less fortunate members of society who has been injured as a direct consequence of a driver using a hand held mobile telephone whilst driving. As a cyclist, passing in the opposite direction, the driver, whilst using a hand held mobile telephone, lost control of the car that they were driving, careered across the road, directly hitting me head on. I went over the wing, on to the bonnet, smashed my face into the windscreen, flipped over the roof, down the rear, and back on to the road breaking multiple bones as I did so. I blacked out as the motorist dropped the telephone, abandoned the car, and ran from the scene.

An hour later, the police arrived and were able to locate the motorist, and the witnesses. As my body had been removed into an ambulance, and my bicycle removed from my body, the police decided that, wait for it, ‘no police action was preferred.’

One complaint through my MP, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, etc., resulted in receiving the response of, ‘the police action, or rather lack of action was acceptable, and that it is not a requirement for the police to prosecute.’

The conclusion is clear, whilst it is illegal to drive whilst using a hand held mobile telephone; our society has yet to accept the significance of the risk, in the same manner as was previously applied to drink driving. It is only when society decides that driving whilst using a hand held mobile telephone is as bad as drink driving, then nothing will change.

Brian - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone20th September 2007 at 11:02 pm

As an aviation pilot, the limitations of multitasking are well known – you fly the aircraft and then communicate (in that order). Mobile phones (hands free!) are no different. If you need to concentrate you stop talking.

Often research is badly done and biased (who would want a report that says it’s safe?) For example, subjects are often told to talk on the phone while carrying out some task, when in reality they should just stop the conversation.

Maybe it’s a case of making drivers aware of how to safely use hands free mobile phones (and other devices), with legal specifications on how a hands free system works – some are just diabolical.

Charlie Rea - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone24th September 2007 at 9:29 am

There is already a transport solution available that addresses many of these concerns. As a motorcyclist I cannot use the phone while riding or get stuck in traffic jams – it is bliss and far too involving to have problems keeping awake! You just have to keep a wary eye out for the poor unfortunates who are not so enlightened…

Simon Ward - I can’t drive, I’m on the phone27th September 2007 at 8:56 am

I though this article was rather funny until I realised it wasn’t a joke!

Let’s step outside the ‘nanny-state’ frame-of-mind and look at things sensibly. Mobile phones are not dangerous, hands-free devices are not dangerous, nor are cars, knives, guns et cetera et cetera, what can be dangerous is the person responsible for them and that is what I feel is missing – responsibility. We can all blame someone or something, that’s easy; but come on, “…high level of concentration required to conduct any type of telephone conversation…” am I missing something here or is it really that much more complicated speaking to something clipped to your ear as opposed to talking to someone next to you…should that be banned too? Whilst on the subject of hands-free or should I say “…ludicrous headsets that scream out their owners’ misguided sense of self-importance…” I use one as it’s the law. Where on earth does a sense of self-importance come into it, how can it possibly come into it?! Probably the same place as “…highly addictive satnav…”, believe me there is nothing addictive with satnav. I suppose it’s more ‘dangerous’ than reading a map and searching for road signs then isn’t it? Get to know the equipment before you set-off, not whilst driving.
The sort of people to find satnav addictive and the task of talking on the telephone extremely difficult should not be allowed behind the wheel of any car in the first place, afterall isn’t the nut behind the wheel the most dangerous part of any car?
Surely what should be addressed is the long forgotten art of ‘common sense’. If people don’t have the skills required to comfortably control a car, regardless of ‘distractions’ such as climate control (?) then they shouldn’t get a driving license. A license is a privilege, not a right.
I see a lot of people still using their phones (usually but not exclusively van drivers) and yes a number of times their driving is awful but I’m willing to bet that the majority of these drivers don’t turn into ‘experts’ the moment the phone’s put down.
Come on people, let’s not jump on the blame-mentality band-wagon and start to address the real issues.